Fabric Design | DIY crafts | Graphic Design | Interior Design

How to decorate a dining room for the holidays

Written by Rachel L. Ritter
Today’s topic is my take on how to bring style into your dining room. Great design comes from first establishing what your style is or what you want it to look like. That’s the best part of taking on a new residential project, helping to a client to pinpoint what their style is and then guiding them through the design process, to achieve the correct look and feel of the space.

With the holidays coming up, people like to update their dining rooms to get them looking nice for when their family comes to town. If your family is like mine, you have a dining table but don’t ever use it unless it’s Thanksgiving. Right now we don’t have kids so my husband and I eat in front of the TV while watching The Big Bang Theory. It’s not glamorous but it suits us for now.

Organized display perfect for Thanksgiving parties via HGTV.com

SEATING: If you look online you’ll see tons of beautiful dining rooms that are just picture perfect. Most of us don’t have the space for a long farm table with 10 matching chairs. Our family is small and the space in our home is limited, so it’s unrealistic to think a huge table would work for us. For most of us, realistically it’s something like the picture below, beautiful and simple but it doesn’t facilitate for having extra family members over.

Ariane Goldman via Lonny Magazine

One simple solution is to find a bench that has multiple uses like seating + storage. It should be light enough to be able to move from the living room or bedroom out into the dining room to help provide more seating. Choosing a bench in an eclectic style helps it not be pigeon-holed into a specific style, which makes it easier to use wherever it’s needed. This mentality also helps your furniture to look collected over time, versus buying all one suit from a big box store and everything looking the same.

Another item that goes hand in hand with flexible seating options is having a drop leaf table. Having the option to add the leaf when there’s more people eating is great, and it saves space when not in use.

Long upholstered bench via designsponge.com

COLOR: No one should be afraid of color. Most of us are getting braver and bolder in our daily outfits, so it should translate outward into our homes as well. These are the spaces we spend a lot of time in so they should be a true expression of our individual personalities, or combined if you’re living with someone/married.

Design Nehez firm via Desire to Inspire

OBJECTS: People should find more ways to successfully incorporate interesting pieces that they’ve collected. These pieces can be from their world travels,

passed down from family,

Can’t you imagine the dishes being passed down from a cute little granny?

a DIY project they completed on their own,

DIY light fixture

or thrift store finds.

Thrift store table

Mixing in fun decor can really liven up a space, because it creates a talking point with company but also acts as natural focal points in a room. I’m hoping these images have given you some ideas to start a dining room redesign, if you’ve been wanting to start one and finish in time for the holidays. Please feel free to follow along (and participate in) the Interior Design Chat tonight at 6p ET, 5p CT, 3p PT, and 11p GMT. Follow them at @IntDesignerChat or follow us at @CMYfabriK, we love connecting with new peeps!